Fighting Against Oppression by Strumming and Plucking

Such a giddy word, “ukulele.” If only “Sex! Drugs! & Ukuleles!” were worthy of it.

The show, a new musical by Uke Jackson (book and lyrics) and Terry Waldo (music) at Theater for the New City, tries for campiness of the “Little Shop of Horrors” variety but doesn’t have the necessary wit. The operating theory seems to have been, “We can throw pretty much anything onto the stage, and it’ll be hilarious, because, well, ukuleles are involved.” If only it were that easy.

It’s the end of the 21st century, and the world is controlled by a giant drug company, with people injected regularly to keep them passive. Procreation takes place in laboratories, and love, as one character says, is “a throwback emotion from the days before chemical emancipation.”

But three rebels (Meg Cavanaugh, Lindsay Foreman and John Forkner) are meeting secretly to indulge in a forbidden practice: playing music. On ukuleles, of course. The story becomes increasingly incomprehensible as it rolls along, and the songs Mr. Jackson (who has also written under his birth name, Stephen DiLauro) and Mr. Waldo sprinkle in are neither lyrically clever nor particularly memorable. Also, no one in the cast has much of a singing voice.

The best moments come from Ms. Cavanaugh and especially Ms. Foreman, who both show a good sense of comic timing and the facial expressions to go with it. Someday they’ll get roles with more actual comedy in them. Here, though, there’s not enough for them or the other actors to work with, and you’re left waiting for the ukulele giveaway (save that ticket stub) at the curtain call.